CNN's Matt Lewis: Rape and groping are obviously wrong, but “what are the rules?”

Lewis: “If you are a powerful man in this country ... are you allowed to hit on younger women?”

From the October 10 edition of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360:

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MATT LEWIS: This actually does raise an interesting sort of side point, which could get me in trouble, but i'm going to do it anyway. So, obviously, I mean -- he's accused of rape, that's obviously a black and white issue, right? Groping is obviously wrong. Threatening, quid pro quo, “If you don't do this, I'm going to fire you” -- those are obviously, like, criminal and evil things to do.

JEFFREY TOOBIN: Oh, god there's going to be a “but.” and you're going to regret saying it.

LEWIS However --

TOOBIN: Yeah, okay.

LEWIS: However -- so, he denies any, you know, unwanted sexual contact, at least for now, so we should say that. But I guess my question is what -- what are the rules? What are the rules? Because if you are a -- if you are a powerful man, if you're a boss, and he called these women, by the way, “colleagues.” I don't know if they're colleagues or subordinates, but what are the rules?

[...]

Let me tell you what I'm getting at. If you are -- if you are a powerful man in this country, you're an important -- if you're a celebrity or whatever, are you -- and let's say you're not married. Are you allowed to hit on younger women?

Previously:

Lesson of horrific Weinstein reports: Be a voice for the oppressed, or help the oppressors stay in power

Jake Tapper calls out Sean Hannity's hypocrisy on sexual harassment after Hannity hosted Bill O'Reilly

Alex Jones discussing Weinstein reports: Women in Hollywood “know what” they’re “getting into” by joining the industry